China Unique
Posted in Antiques on 09/27/2010 10:55 pm by admin
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What would be an interesting topic of Late Imperial China?
I don't know much about Late Imperial China so what are some of the themes or topics that really stand out or made Imperial China unique? I can't think of anything but boring subjects like law in China, Family relations, technology, transportation, etc... but those are all so boring! Help?
Footbinding. It started earlier than "Late" Imperial China but it's weird and it was still going on, so you might get something out of it.
Population explosion. I'm not sure how interesting this is but it had huge effects.
Rebellions: The White Lotus (led by Buddhists), the Taiping (led by a Hong Xiuquan, who claimed he was Jesus' brother), several others (the Boxer rebellion also comes to mind but there are lots).
Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, was a pretty interesting guy. He was the son of peasants and joined a Buddhist rebellion, overthrowing the previous dynasty.
The Manchu invasion: The Manchus were a group of nomadic hunters from the north of China who took over the country and became the Qing, one of the longest and richest dynasties in Chinese history. They massacred entire cities on the way, such as Yangzhou.
The Jesuits: The Jesuits started coming to China in the 1500s. They thought they could convert the emperors by displaying scientific prowess. They did in fact impress the emperors by showing off how good they were at making accurate calendars and eclipse predictions, and they also constituted some of the first Westerners to take a real interest in the Chinese culture and language. They also were not very good at promoting Christianity and eventually got in trouble with the Church.
Zheng Yi and Zheng Shi: a pirate couple.
Silkworm-raising: a weirdly complex process that was sort of a unique Chinese familial operation.
The problem of way too many men with nothing to do: Towards the end of the Qing dynasty, there was a huge problem of too many men in proportion to women, as well as unemployment. This mainly had to do with a) the general rise in population, b) the cultural preference for boys over girls (after the family has a boy, they stop having children), c) financial problems in the empire that left many jobless. A lot of men turned to banditry, crime, and rebellion.
Post-mortem marriage: I think this is a practice that goes back centuries and still happens in some remote parts of China, but it's really interesting in light of cultural values. Say the following happens: A boy from a family dies in childhood or early adulthood, before he has a chance to marry. The same happens to a girl from another family. The two families decide to broker an arrangement, and marry the two after death, so that the two have not died alone.
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